Trying to take my own advice

I stitched this afternoon but two of the family are coming down with something like the flu that comes with aches - and I think I might have it too. It's always hard to tell since I feel like I have the flu permanently but my hands don't usually ache this much for no reason. I finally took a couple painkillers tonight with dinner but I think they're wearing off.

When in frustration with the universe (and my brain not working - my eyes aren't focussing properly and I'm finding it hard to think) I gave up working on froggy today here is where I got to:


Two complete eyes now, roughly 20150 stitches. Not a bad stint, not as good as last week but then my eyes were focussing and my hands weren't killing me last week! I was sick, just differently. I watched tv without anything in my hands except Koukla for a couple hours (a few of you will probably die of shock at hearing that), enjoying a This is Your Life about Shannon Noll, Spics&Specs (a sort of musical game show half comedy show that is really hard to explain), bits and pieces of US So You Think You Can Dance and the Gruen Transfer, which I love. Finally, I settled down on the couch again, picking up Mystery X. I've got a length and a half of thread in but I'm just struggling with my hands not wanting to work so I've given up for the night.

I cooked dinner tonight - I often do on Wednesday or Friday since I'm the weirdo that eats vegan twice a week (and for an entire fortnight, come this Friday, hooray for the Dormition Fast!) but I was not in the mood for anything fancy. Instead of buying normal magazines I buy recipe magazines, and not the fancy ones - the excellent budget yummy ones. I get sooo many recipes from there, and it saves me from meat&three veg every night (which, incidentally, I hate if it's done the traditional way, bland and boring. My parents disagree) because Mum likes them too. So, with 'not fancy' in mind, I pulled this chilli recipe out of July's Recipes+ magazine.

Chilli Beans with Wedges
Serves 4, prep 10minutes cook20minutes
900g frozen potato wedges (we did not eat anywhere near the whole packet and we used 750g! Also, we did tater-tots or their equivalent for my coeliac sister who can't eat wedges, and I prefer them)
1tbs olive oil (Don't bother measuring. Just plonk a bunch in, enough to fry an onion)
1 brown onion, chopped
400g can red kidney beans, rinsed
400g can borlotti beans, rinsed
425g can sweet corn kernels, drained
375g jar enchilada sauce (or chunky salsa if you are like me and can't find enchilada sauce!)
1 avocado, diced (in season here at the moment, YUM)
1/2 cup coriander leaves, roughly chopped
light sour cream, to serve (or use hummous if you are being vegan)

1. Put the wedges/tater tots in to cook. The magazines had instructions but they're on the packet anyway.
2. While that's cooking, heat oil in a large saucepan over moderate heat. Cook and stir onion for five minutes or until soft. Add beans (BOTH CANS, I forgot one and had to add it and reheat), corn and sauce and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.
3. Spoon chilli into serving bowls. Top with avocado, coriander and a dollop of sour cream/hummous. Serve with whatever potato you cooked.

This is incrediby easy, quick, and really really yummy. My sister likes it, and she hates basically anything vegan I cook, though it doesn't help that I like spicy curries and she is of the view that food should not make you cry. It's also good cold as leftovers, if you have any left! I am so going to make this again, possibly in the next week or so given I'll be cooking up all my easy vegan recipes again - for 1, generally, since my family is not Orthodox and they cope with being vegan twice a week but more than that is kinda pushing it. This is quicker than almost anything else I have cooked that fits the rules for nestia, the fasts. It does have oil in it, which breaks the rules for people who keep the fasts strictly but my priest would have my head if I tried to do that...

As to the post title? I kinda...decided that I'd do something about the well known fact that everyone comes to me for advice but I can't take it myself. So I dug out the box of index cards that I use for everything from memorising Greek or Arabic vocab to test preparation to writing out prayers and Bible verses to read or memorise or both. And blu-tak (stuff you stick posters up with ) And coloured markers. And attacked the wall next to my bed :)



The top three cards are a summary of Orthodoxy quoted by Fr Thomas Hopko, I can't remember who he was quoting though. "Go to Church. Say your prayers. Remember God." I have yet to find better *grins* The others are all common sense stuff:

"Do an hour's schoolwork every day as well as lessons. Saves stress later!"

"Say morning and evening prayers regardless of the time of day" - I have a tendency to wake up at 3 and feel ridiculous saying morning prayers, especially the ones that say that say greeting the dawn etc

"Go to bed before midnight. The internet will not explode without you!"

"Get up in the morning. The sooner you're up, the better you'll feel

"Take your meds. Forgetting just makes you feel worse" (marginally, my meds make me feel sick too!)

"If you feel tired at night, sleep. Don't you think your body knows what you need?"

The final few cards are one with my schedule of medications, and two that have the prayer for an ill person (or one of them) on them. It's readable from my bed, but not really in the photo unless you go to the full size view.

I have a confession to make though - my bed doesn't usually get made (getting out of it is usually effort enough) but I wasn't going to take a photo without it made, so it got made....and i'll be in bed sleeping soon enough!

Anyway, enough. I'll ramble if I'm not careful!